1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to document organizing systems and more particularly to a device for facilitating the sorting of documents by providing a large number of conveniently arranged document retaining slots in a small area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The organization of documents is a task that must be performed not only by large businesses but also by individuals arranging family and personal records, such as cancelled personal checks.
Such organization usually entails sorting documents by number, date or subject matter such as author, customer, or the like. Furthermore, normal organization involves putting the documents in numerical, chronological or alphabetical order, as the case may be.
Two basic techniques have been used for such sorting of documents: automatic and manual. According to automatic techniques, the documents are encoded according to their number, date or subject matter as the case may be. Such encoding is accomplished by punching holes in the documents or by placing a photoresponsive or electrically responsive material on the documents. The documents are then sorted automatically by a computerized machine capable of reading the code. These machines are extremely expensive and, therefore, are economical only for large businesses for which document sorting is a major concern.
According to the manual technique, the documents are reviewed and placed in piles of documents having a partiular range of numbers, dates or subject matters. These piles are then separately sorted and re-sorted. Where a large number of documents are involved, several piles must be made consuming substantial workspace. The physical arrangement of the piles often is haphazard. As a result, much time is wasted looking for the pile in which each document belongs. More time is wasted when the piles must be shifted to make room for a new pile.
Vertical files, including a plurality of elongate, parallel slots open on the top and on both ends, have sometimes been used for facilitating this second technique of document organization by retaining documents in vertically-oriented piles. Generally, the slots of such files are relatively deep thus making them unavailable for smaller documents such as checks. Furthermore, the slots are aligned with one another thus making it difficult to see the documents in the rear slots when the front slots are retaining documents. Proper placement of the documents in the slots is further complicated by the fact that such placement requires lifting the documents directly above th slots and dropping them vertically into the slots. Thus, documents must be lifted over the documents in the front slots and carefully positioned over the appropriate slot. Also, if subdivisions and sub-subdivisions of the piles must be made, the originally divided piles must be removed from the file and placed to one side in horizontally oriented stacks while further division of each pile is made.